Kingdom Hearts III: Uncovering Secrets
by Aira Xavier
Summary: 'They're hurting, and you're the only one who can end their sadness. They need you.' Before Sora, Kairi and Riku became Keybladers, there were three others - three so similar to them, the three students of Master Eraqus. But there was one more - one forgotten Keyblade Master who is connected to those three. This is her story.
1. Prologue

**Summary**: _'They're hurting, and you're the only one who can end their sadness. They need you.'_ Before Sora, Kairi and Riku became Keybladers, there were three others - three so similar to them. But there was one more - one forgotten Keyblade Master. This is her story.  
**Disclaimer**: I'm only going to put this in the Prologue and it applies to all chapters including and after this one. I do _**NOT** _own Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix, Final Fantasy, Disney or any other affiliated companies associated with Kingdom Hearts. The only things I own in this story are Aira, several of my other OCs (which I shall name when they are put to use), and the plot.

* * *

She could only see pure whiteness around her - the entire room (place?) she was in was just one color (_whitewhitewhite_), and for all she knew, she could have been standing on the ceiling instead of the ground. The color was blinding, really, but she fought against the urge to cover her eyes - there was no telling what thing would decide to ambush her when she let her guard down.

Suddenly, grayish swirls filled the room, causing shadows to appear - she could now see the walls of the room she was in. A moment later, colors appeared and smashed into the walls, forming drawings of sorts. Curiosity overwhelmed her and she walked towards one of them - only vaguely noticing that she wasn't even touching the ground. Upon reaching one of the pictures, she basically just stared at it, trying to make sense of the colored scribbles on it - it was like she didn't know how to identify shapes anymore.

_colorsandfiguresblendedtoget her__  
_  
Squinting, she was taken aback when something seemed to smack into her head from behind. She hit her head on the wall and, groaning, turned to face who had done it, but there was no one there. Frowning, she looked at the ground to see if she could find what hit her and quickly grabbed the offending object.

It was a crayon - a white crayon. Puzzled, she merely stared at it for a few seconds before shrugging and placing it in her pocket. She began walking around the room, trying to make sense of the colored sketches. A few stirred something in her mind, but she just couldn't seem to grasp what it was trying to tell her.

"Are they unfamiliar to you?" a voice asked.

Whirling around, she came face-to-face with a light blonde haired female with intense eyes. Her guard went up immediately, but she didn't summon her weapon - something told her that this girl wasn't going to hurt her.

"Who are you?" she asked, ignoring the question that had been thrown at her.

"My name is Naminé - I sent for you because of your connection to the three Fallen Ones."

The other female cocked her head in confusion. "The Fallen Ones? Who are they?"

A memory stirred, but she couldn't make heads or tails of it.  
_  
__rememberusdontforgetaboutus__  
_  
Her head began to hurt when she heard three voices in her head, one rising above the rest.

_dontforgetwhoyouarestopresis ting__  
_  
'Naminé' could only watch as her charge fell to her knees, clutching her head.

stoptryingtocontrolyourmemor iesopenyourmindwerestillhere waitingforyou

"Stop it - make it stop!" she cried to the blonde, who only shook her head in response.

"I cannot - not until you remember who you are," was the reply.

_pleaseremembermerememberus__  
_  
Everything snapped into focus just then. "Ven?" she croaked as her mind finally registered whose voice she was hearing.

_yourebackhelpus__  
_  
Naminé smiled wistfully. "Now do you remember who the Fallen Ones are?"

Aira slowly stood, still somewhat unsteady on her feet. Mutely, she nodded - her head was still pounding and she had no doubt that she probably looked as pale as the walls right now.

"You have a new mission now. Find the boy named Sora and find your fallen teammates."

Violet eyes flashed with regret as she stared at the other female. "Why did you wake me up?"

"They need you."

It was a simple answer, but it told her more than she needed to know.

"Here, take this." The blonde stretched out a hand and summoned a Keyblade. "Its name is Chain of Memories, and I am giving it to you."

Aira reached out and took the offered weapon with her right hand. As was her habit, she slashed it to the right then to the left, just to test its capacity. Satisfied, she nodded.

Naminé smiled at her then. "Well, good luck."

That was all she could recall before her world faded to black.


	2. Waking Up

**Summary**: _'They're hurting, and you're the only one who can end their sadness. They need you.'_ Before Sora, Kairi and Riku became Keybladers, there were three others - three so similar to them. But there was one more - one forgotten Keyblade Master. This is her story.

* * *

Voices. They were the first thing she heard when she regained consciousness. Keeping her eyes closed, she listened, trying to figure out whether she was in a safe place, or if she was in danger.

"Rox, you're gonna creep her out if you keep staring at her like that. If she wakes up and sees your face, she's gonna scream - mark my words," someone said.

"Cut it out Axel, I'm not that creepy," another replied, his voice sounding awfully familiar.

'Ventus?' With that thought, her eyes immediately opened, only to be met with intense blue eyes. "Ven?" she whispered, recognizing the eyes.

"You okay?" the blue-eyed male asked, his voice somewhat emotionless. Pulling away from her, he turned to look at another person in the room. "She didn't scream," he said smugly.

"Yeah, yeah," the other person - a male with shocking red hair and greener than green eyes - replied nonchalantly as he made a shooing gesture with his hand. "She's still probably in shock."

With an nearly invisible huff, the blue-eyed male turned to her again, his dirty blond hair swaying with his every movement.

She remained immobile where she was. Considering the fact that the two males in the room appeared to be sitting, she assumed that she was lying down, probably on a bed or a mattress or something to that effect. As her mind slowly processed several things, she slowly sat up without anyone's help. "Where am I?" she asked, turning to the blond male, the one who looked so familiar.

"Castle Oblivion. We found you in the Keyblade Graveyard," the male replied. "Oh yeah, before I forget, my name's Roxas. That's Axel," he added, gesturing to himself before pointing to the red-haired male.

She froze. The male wasn't Ventus? Then why did they look so alike? Her memories were intact, as far as she was concerned, so why didn't he have the same name as the person she knew?

"What's your name?"

She only vaguely heard the question, and was caught off guard, but she recovered quickly. However, before she could reply, Axel cut her off saying, "You dolt, I don't think she remembers anything - she's a Nobody after all, just like us."

'Ventus', or Roxas, rather, rubbed his head sheepishly before he gave them an embarrassed grin. "I knew that," he remarked.

_'I'm a nobody? What?'_ Aira huffed. "Last time I checked, I was a somebody," she retorted.

"And she's strangely talkative for a newborn Nobody.." Axel commented offhandedly. But his words were true – whenever the Organization had new recruits, they would be as silent as death for the first few days. This girl, on the other hand, could formulate simple questions, and her eyes didn't seem as empty. In fact, her eyes shone with life and - dare he say it? - knowledge.

Sighing, the redhead offered a hand to her. "We've got to get you up so you can meet Xemnas," he explained when he saw her quizzical look.

"Oh," was her simple reply as she took his hand and allowed him to pull her into a sitting position. Slowly, she tried to get her feet on the ground, but it took her a while to actually stabilize herself.

Once they were sure that she wasn't going to fall over, Axel handed her a black hooded cloak which she carefully, and slowly, slipped on. All the whole, the two males were studying her movements - she wasn't robotic or halting in her actions, which was very strange. She didn't act like one of them, she seemed perfectly conscious of what she was doing, very much unlike the rest of them who acted like zombies for the first few days - they merely shuffled around, mumbling one-word answers.

The ravenette noted how the cloak seemed to drown her - it was too big: the ends pooled at her feet and the sleeves went well past her hands. Sighing, she looked at the two. "Are there any other sizes?" she asked dryly as she raised her hands to show how much it was sagging.

"Oh," Axel was silent for a moment before his eyes drifted to his partner. "Let her borrow one of your cloaks for a bit," he said and gave the blonde a little push when he hesitated.

Roxas left the room for the moment and returned with another cloak slung over his arm. "Here," he said, giving it to her. Their hands brushed for a second as she accepted the item.

She grinned at him before taking the old cloak off and slipping on the new one. "Perfect, it not a bit loose," she chirped as she pushed the sleeves up slightly. It was a lot better than the last one, and she knew they could see it. She didn't bother closing the front zipper and merely fidgeted with the chains that were on either side of the hood.

Axel nodded his approval. "Okay, time to bring her to the boss."


	3. Meeting Xemnas

**Summary**: _'They're hurting, and you're the only one who can end their sadness. They need you.'_ Before Sora, Kairi and Riku became Keybladers, there were three others - three so similar to them. But there was one more - one forgotten Keyblade Master. This is her story.

Before I start, I want to say thanks to my reviewers:  
**rageaxe195:** Thanks for being my first reviewer! ^.^ *hands cookie*  
**mariposablossom:** Thanks for the review. I promise I'll clear up all this confusion about Aira's appearance within the next two or three chapters. ^.^ *hands another cookie*

**Author's** **Note:** I'm not sure if I'll be able to update next Tuesday because finals are coming up, but I'll try my best to. ^.^

Now, on with the story! And please review if you liked it! ^.^

* * *

Slowly but surely, the trio made their way through the corridors and to one of the large rooms that Aira knew were in the castle. The walls of the place were blindingly white, and her eyes took quite a while getting used to the colour scheme - the only things that were of different colours were the black cloaks and the features of the people who wore them.

On their way there, they bumped into the other members of the Organization, sans Xemnas. Saïx had narrowed his eyes at the newbie, but said nothing - something both of her escorts were thankful for. About halfway through their journey there, Axel spoke, breaking the silence that surrounded them. "When we reach Xemnas - don't talk. Give him one word answers, gestures, and basically just act dead," he told her firmly. If Xemnas were to find out about the fact that she was probably _not_ a Nobody, then who knows what would happen. "Do _not_ talk - got it memorized?"

Though stunned, she nodded and resumed walking. _'Act dead, huh?'_ With a soft snort, she tried to loosen up and began shuffling her feet instead of just walking. At Axel's exasperated look, she giggled and let up a bit on the shuffling. She just needed to act a bit out of it, which wasn't going to be that hard, hopefully.

It took a while for them to reach the room, but when they finally did, Roxas was the one who pushed the doors open. His eyes met Aira's for a split second before her gestured for her to go in.

Xemnas looked like Terra - at least, that was Aira's first impression of him. When he asked her to come forward, she did. Axel's words ran through her mind for the umpteenth time - she needed to fool Xemnas, but for what reason, she didn't know.

"Where did you find her?"

"Twilight Town, while Roxas and I were finishing up a mission."

"Hm." Xemnas' eyes grew thoughtful for a moment. What were the chances of another Nobody appearing in Twilight Town? Zero to none, last time he checked. He scrutinized the new recruit carefully - something wasn't right with her. And why wasn't he alerted? Every time a new Nobody was created, he could somehow tell that they were created, but this girl, he hadn't felt anything. And yet, here she was - standing among them - only Nobodies could enter their castle, so she must be a Nobody.

"Do you want to know?"

He was about to initiate her as one of their own. She prayed that whatever he needed to do would work out just fine. Raising a hand, he swept it in an arc in front of her. Slowly, the four letters that made up her name came into view - hanging in mid-air like glass charms.

'Aira,' Roxas read mentally - he would store that information in his mind.

"You feel nothing. You can feel nothing.. Do you want a meaning?"

Aira nodded mutely, trying to appear as 'zombie-like' as she could. The silver-haired male made another sweeping gesture with his hand and her name began circling her. Suddenly, he flicked his wrist right in front of her and the letters stopped moving. From her peripheral vision, she could see a large 'X' in the middle of the letters. "Raixa - a new you," he said reading her new name aloud. He expected her to look him in the eye after hearing her name, but to his surprise, she continued staring at the floor.

A few seconds passed before she finally looked up, and Xemnas finally understood everything - she wasn't a Nobody at all - she was still whole, neither the Heartless or the Nobody part of her had been separated - her eyes spoke the truth. But, where would the fun go if he told them all that she wasn't a Nobody? A smirk graced his lips as he sent her away with Axel and Roxas - he needed to use that fact against her.

Meanwhile, Raixa was trying to shake off the feeling of dread that had settled over her. Roxas glanced at her, wondering why she was rubbing her arms so much. "Are you cold?" he asked, not really understand.

The female shook her head. "I'm fine," she insisted as she allowed her hands to drop until they hung loosely at her side. Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she suddenly looked up and wondered where they were. She hadn't been paying attention to where they were headed so she was quite surprised to find that they weren't inside the castle anymore.

"Raixa."

She snapped out of her confusion when she heard Axel call her. "What are we doing here?" she asked him. The place was completely bare and in the base was in a circular shape. She frowned for a bit as she looked at the ground and noticed that it looked like a stained glass window - like the ones she saw in a cathedral once.

"We need to find out your weapon," the redhead answered as he summoned two red, spiked chakrams. She rubbed her eyes as she saw flames surrounding his weapons, thinking that she was hallucinating, but to her surprise, they were still there.

"You control fire?" she asked, incredulous.

Axel grinned. "In case it wasn't obvious." He nodded at Roxas, telling him to be at the ready to defend Raixa in case something went wrong and, without warning, flung both his weapons at the female.


	4. A Second Chosen One

**Summary**: _'They're hurting, and you're the only one who can end their sadness. They need you.'_ Before Sora, Kairi and Riku became Keybladers, there were three others - three so similar to them. But there was one more - one forgotten Keyblade Master. This is her story.

Before I start, I want to say thanks to my reviewers:  
**nostalgicCyanide:** Thanks for the kind review! *hands cookie*

**Author's** **Note:** Finals start on March 18, and I've got an operation coming up on March 23 + a week recovery, which means I'll be pretty busy for the next three-ish weeks. No updates during finals and until I get out of the hospital, so I'm apologizing in advance for that.

ALSO, I'm looking for a Beta Reader. ^.^  
PM me if you're interested.

Now, on with le story! =D

* * *

Instinctively, Raixa reached out a hand and prayed for the familiar coolness of metal to touch the underside of her palm. She didn't know if it was going to work at all, since she hadn't tried summoning her weapon since she woke up, but with luck, it would still answer her call.

The relief she felt when she grasped the handle was indescribable. With a grin, she flicked away the two rapidly spinning wheels of doom that were headed towards her. Seeing both Axel's and Roxas' astonished looks, she merely shook her head and glanced at the Keyblade in her hand.

Its name? Absolution.

It was her first ever Keyblade and the fact that she could still summon it meant a lot to her. Grinning, she readied her stance and basically dared Axel to attack her again. The redhead was only too eager to comply as he called forth his weapons once again and dashed towards her.

She had to smirk as she crouched and dodged his attack neatly. For the next few seconds, all she did was jump around and get used to being in battle again. Axel was getting aggravated and tired, she could tell - he was starting to breathe heavily, and there was sweat dripping down his brow. Raixa changed her stance from defensive to offensive in an instant - her opponent was weak, and she needed to take advantage of that.

Years of training flowed back into her mind as she charged at the redhead, her weapon poised to strike. Since she didn't know Axel's fighting style that well, she wasn't too sure of herself, but she had faced quite a number of opponents on her journeys, so she would be able to hold her own, at the very least. As she neared him, she kept her Keyblade at her side before suddenly feinting to her left and catching him off guard.

He was left open as he followed her movements, and didn't have time to block her attack from his left side. Raixa winced as he flew a few feet away from the impact but shook it off and forced herself to focus - the battle was far from over. While Axel was still recovering, she ran at him again, this time planning to hit him from above.

To her surprise, he parried her blow and pushed her back. She slid backwards a bit but launched herself forward again as soon as she had stabilized herself. Her muscles were quite strained, since she hadn't had this much exercise in quite a while, but she forced herself to ignore the pain and managed to disarm Axel before hitting him again - it didn't look like she was going to give up anytime soon.

In the end, her fatigue won and she collapsed on the ground, her breaths coming out loud and slightly strangled. "Haven't had that much fun in a while," she let out in one breath before quieting and waiting for herself to recover. Axel had done pretty much the same some ways away, but he stayed in a sitting position - he wasn't as tired as her. At first he had played with the idea that she had been pretending to be tired, but when her Keyblade suddenly vanished from her hold, he knew that she was as exhausted as she looked.

Roxas ran over to them, his blue eyes showing emotion? Axel quickly looked at his partner and frowned - was that concern he could see in the blonde's eyes?

"Are you guys okay?" the younger Nobody asked, his eyes drifting over the other two Nobodies with him. He had been on the side-lines the entire fight, and he had seen how Raixa had held her own against his partner. Axel was not an easy person to tire, he knew, but she had managed to wear him down quite a bit, which was quite the feat for a newbie - if she even _was_ a newbie.

"Yeah, I'm alright. Raixa?" Axel slowly got up and stretched his muscles, his green eyes drifting to the female in their midst. When no reply came, the two crept up to her and had to hold in their amusement - Raixa wasn't just lying down, she was actually sleeping!

"Looks like you tired her out more than you should've," Roxas commented, wondering how were they supposed to bring her back to her room. Should they carry her? When he looked at Axel, the redhead seemed to be thinking about the same question.

With a sigh, Axel opened up a corridor and glanced back at his partner. "Carry her to her room - I need to tell Xemnas that we've got another Keyblader on our hands," he said before slipping into the swirling black mass, just so that Roxas wouldn't have time to butt out.

Albeit a bit confused, since they usually did stuff together, Roxas knelt down and carefully collected the female into his arms. He noted that she seemed to fit perfectly into his arms and opened up another corridor - one that would bring him to her room directly.

"Mm," Raixa groaned as she shifted, her nose nuzzling the junction between his neck and his shoulder. The Nobody stiffened at the foreign contact and remained frozen for a while before walking into the corridor - the sooner he put her down, the sooner he could get away from her - and the weird things she was doing to him: just now, even for just a single moment, he felt his non-existent heart beat faster, and that wasn't something he was familiar with.

He had to hold in the grunt of relief he was about to make when he stepped into her room and placed her on the bed - he didn't know whether Raixa was a light or heavy sleeper, but it was still better to be silent, just in case she was overly violent when she woke up - like Larxene.

"Ventus.." he heard her mumble as she turned to face the other side. Subconsciously, he wondered who this 'Ventus' person was - he had heard her when she said the name the first time, and now that she had said it a second time, he was becoming more curious.

However, that was a question for another day. Turning around, Roxas opened another corridor and left, it was nearly time for his and Axel's usual ice-cream routine.


End file.
